Let’s be honest. The current Bulls are nowhere near the Bulls Dynasty of the ’90s. Some would say even Chicago is missing the culture that was evident during Jordan’s playing days, and he has only grown more distant. Jordan’s mega mansion in Highland Park finally sold, he didn’t show up at the inaugural Ring of Fire ceremony last year, there’s a divide between him and Scottie Pippen, and fans have not even seen MJ at the United Center for the longest of time. Safe to say the only sign of the Black Cat ever being with the Bulls is that statue at the United Center. Now however, Bill Simmons is demanding a dramatic change.

The Bulls re-signed Tre Jones to a new contract and traded Lonzo Ball to the Cavaliers. Simmons believes that the Bulls are no longer an attractive proposition, especially for free agents.

“Who am I selling to my fan? If I’m a Bulls fan, what am I excited about? My owners have already made it very clear to me, we’re never going to really spend money. I don’t think free agents are going to be like, ‘Man, I would love to go to Chicago.’ They’ve done a s—-y job with the Jordan legacy where you never hear a player be like, ‘I want to go to Chicago and reinvigorate the Bulls. That team really meant something,” Simmons said.

With no signs of MJ’s legacy left, Simmons outright demands that Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the franchise since before Jordan’s era, take a leaf out of Jeanie Buss’ book. Speaking of his own comments about the Warriors and Red Sox sales, Simmons said on The Ringer podcast, “If somebody can come in and do this correctly, there’s this amazing fanbase ready to pay any amount of money, and everyone will go to the games.’ Everyone’s going to the games anyway. Like, if the right ownership group figures this out, holy s–t!”

He proceeded to call the Bulls “a criminally misused asset,” and believes that, “since Jordan left, when instead of going for the seventh title, they said, ‘Oh, no, we’re going to rebuild. We’re smarter than everybody.’ And from that moment on, all they did was cheap out.”

The Bulls lack the Magic-Lakers blueprint

The Chicago Bulls are currently valued at $5.8 billion right now. But it’s missing much of its old magic. Especially since The Last Dance splintered the old team. Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan don’t even show up at the United Center anymore.

The Lakers sale not only has a new owner experienced in fan culture, but Walter also has the seal of approval from Lakers legend Magic Johnson, a minority owner of the Dodgers. Having the guy whose statue stands in the arena vouch this sale means a lot to fans.

That’s why Simmons says, “I just feel like if I was like a cajillionaire, that [Bulls] would be the team I would try to buy because if you can reignite that team and rebuild them and tap into the Jordan DNA and Pippen and the, you know, bring those guys back and give Jordan a ceremonial position and really like ignite it, I think that would be a really special franchise.”

Because, as he put it, the Bulls are in the worst position right now. Not only are their biggest stars disconnected, Josh Giddey, the closest thing to Jordan DNA the team had, is on the verge of leaving. If the team doesn’t start making the right decisions starting with Giddey, they will likely alienate even more fans. Most analysts do claim that the Bulls need to come out of the Reinsdorf era.

However, knowing the problem and actually solving it may mean two very different things, in this context.